Thursday, March 20, 2008

Honouring Marx

THE PROMISED rain held off last Friday as a large group of people from all corners of the world gathered in Highgate Cemetery, north London, to mark the 125th anniversary of the death of Karl Marx. Those gathered included ambassadors and diplomats from People’s China, Vietnam, South Africa and Cuba together with Danish and German communists, a large party of Chinese students from Westminster College and the regular London-based communist stalwarts of the struggle. Flowers were laid at the base of the huge tomb, including red roses laid by New Communist Party central committee member Robert Laurie. Professor John Callow gave a short speech, in which he mentioned the recently published book Marx in London that he has co-authored. He said his work was an attempt to rescue the real Marx from a welter of tradition and ritual and promote the content of Marx’s writings. “Marxism is not a rigid dogma but a living way of interpreting the political, social and economic processes that are happening all around us,” he said.